A variety of circumstances can cause a human heart to lose its natural rhythm and begin to fibrillate or flutter in an irregular manner. At that point, blood is no longer pumped efficiently throughout the body. The heart can be defibrillated and returned to its normal rhythmic beating by the application of a powerful electrical current of short duration. It is crucial to defibrillate the heart quickly after the onset of fibrillation. Consequently, there is a need for portable defibrillators that can be easily transported to a victim suffering fibrillation of the heart in order to apply a defibrillating electrical current. In addition, there is a need for defibrillators designed to be conveniently and unobtrusively transported along with the patient to a health care facility.
During the period after a heart beat has been restored to normal, it is essential to continuously monitor the heart, so as to ensure that the heart does not begin to fibrillate again. Conventional defibrillators with monitoring circuitry are readily available. However, once attached to a patient, conventional defibrillators are awkward to transport thereafter in the vicinity of the patient due to the characteristics of the defibrillators' construction.
One solution to the problem of transporting a defibrillator along with a patient includes manually carrying the defibrillator alongside the patient. If the patient is being transported on a gurney, the defibrillator may be stored on a rack beneath the gurney or placed directly on the gurney above the head or below the feet of the patient. Each of these solutions, however, has significant drawbacks.
It is clearly impractical to have someone personally carry the defibrillator during the entire time the patient is being treated and transported to a health care facility. Stowing the defibrillator beneath the gurney requires that the gurney be fitted with a rack, and also renders the defibrillator relatively inaccessible so that, for example, where the defibrillator incorporates a monitor, medical personnel have difficulty monitoring the patient's physiological condition while the patient is being moved.
The most common solution to the problem, placing the defibrillator on the gurney, is far from ideal due to the limited available space on the gurney and the relative inaccessibility of the defibrillator. As noted, the defibrillator is typically placed below the feet or above the head of the patient, not near the patient's midsection where defibrillation and monitoring take place. Moreover, conventional defibrillators have a generally horizontal orientation wherein a small display screen is disposed on a front side of the defibrillator that is smaller in length and width than the top or bottom sides. When the defibrillator is set down on a gurney with the bottom side facing the gurney (i.e., front side facing horizontally), the screen is low and faces outward, not upward, making it difficult for medical personnel standing above the defibrillator to observe the monitor.
Conventional defibrillators also have electrical connection sites for coupling cables of other electronic instruments to the defibrillators. However, the electrical connection sites are flush with the front or rear of the defibrillator. Cables connected to these connection sites are subject to incidental impacts to the defibrillator that may dislodge the cables from the connection sites, resulting in the disconnection of the other electronic instruments to the defibrillator. Accordingly, there is a need for a defibrillator designed for easy and unobtrusive transport that includes electrical connection sites resistant to incidental impacts.